I didn't "lump" Gwynn in as a way to equate his overall worth with MUSIAL, DiMaggio and Williams. Obviously he is not at the same level overall as those iconic legends, who had more power and run producing ability. I was providing examples of hitters who understood and practiced incredible plate discipline, who understood the value of putting balls in play over nonproductive strikeouts, and who were basically hitting machines. Gwynn has the highest career BA of any 'modern' player since the era of those 3 other HOFers, and his Ks over a 20 year career were minuscule, so I threw him in as a more recent example of an outstanding disciplined hitter.
You can't produce squat if you strike out. You CAN produce positive results even with an out if you put the ball in play. You can advance runners, you can sacrifice. Errors can occur because the defense has pressure to take care of the ball. As Nogbad alluded to you can even drive in runs with balls in play that aren't even hits with SAC flys, ground outs. A ball in play can be a productive out--a K has no chance of being a productive out. The purpose of the game is to score runs, and balls in play have a much better chance of scoring a run than a K. A K has basically almost a 0 chance of scoring a run. All those hitters cited above understood that. Striking out over 100 times was a badge of dishonor and embarrassing. Even a well coached little leaguer understands this. The fact that you don't is frightening.
I also found it amusing that in your little anti-Gwynn tirade you repeated 2 of the 3 players I cited as bball immortals but left Musial out. That could be you just being your usual petty self, but if you laughably don't think Musial is every bit the bball immortal as DiMaggio and Williams, then you really know squat about the national pastime. But your consistency is amazing.
Oh yeah-- and basketball was better when good shooters had the talent to hit the higher % 15 foot jumper and knew and understood how to create shots (ie see L Bird), rather than launching up lower % 3s, back when teams actually played D.
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